Conventionally, in order to automatically prepare efficiently and reliably one or more blood-sampling tubes for every patient before collecting blood, a blood-sampling tube automatic preparation device have already been proposed. The preparation device, based on information related to one patient including examination information and patient information or the like, automatically selects a blood-sampling tube required to an examination for the patient, prints the examination information and a patient ID or the like corresponding to the patient on a label to make an identification label, automatically pastes the identification label on an outer surface of the selected blood-sampling tube, and then collects one or more blood-sampling tube on which the identification label is pasted for each patient into a tray (Patent documents 1 to 3).
The information printed on the label that is pasted on the blood-sampling tube is used in order that a worker may compare the patient and the blood-sampling tube in a blood sampling room. Also said information printed on the label is used in order that an automatic analyzer may identify the blood-sampling tube containing blood.
By the way, a production label L2 is pre-pasted on some vacuum type blood-sampling tubes (a) (See FIG. 9(a)). The name of the manufacturer and type of vacuum type blood-sampling tubes are printed on said production label L2.
If the identification label L is easily pasted on such the vacuum type blood-sampling tube (a) with the product label L2, the identification label L and the product label L2 may cover all the external surface of the blood-sampling tube (a) (See FIG. 9(b)).
If the labels L and L2 cover all the external surface of the blood-sampling tube, it becomes impossible for the worker to see the quantity of the blood in the blood-sampling tube during the blood collecting process. In the blood examination, blood collected in one blood-sampling tube may not only be used for one kind of inspection, but may also be used for two or more kinds of inspections. Therefore, the quantity of the blood collected in the blood-sampling tube always is not the same. According to the purpose of the inspection, or the kind of blood-sampling tube, the quantity of the blood to be collected in the blood-sampling tube must be changed. But as described above, if the labels L and L2 cover all the external surface of the blood-sampling tube (a), it is very difficult to check the quantity of the blood in the blood-sampling tube by the worker during the blood collecting process.
The blood-sampling tube is transferred to an automatic analyzer that conducts a blood analysis. As described above, if the labels L and L2 cover all the external surface of the blood-sampling tube (a), the automatic analyzer cannot automatically measure the quantity of the blood within the blood-sampling tube (a).
In order to solves the above problem related to the identification label L and the production label L2 pasted on the outer surface of the blood-sampling tube, in the Patent document 4 a labeling machine has been proposed. Before pasting the identification label, said labeling machine detects a position of the production label pre-pasted on the blood-sampling tube, and pastes an identification label above the production label so as to overlap the identification label on the production label, so that after pasting the identification label, the identification label and the production label may not cover all the external surface of the blood-sampling tube (See Patent document 4).